Replay of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst’s last news conference in Europe before his second mission to the International Space Station.

Recorded on 17 April 2018 from the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, the conference includes talks from scientists and question and answers with Alexander.

Alexander’s mission is called Horizons to evoke exploring our Universe, looking far beyond our planet and broadening our knowledge. His first mission was called Blue Dot.

Alexander will be launched on 6 June 2018 with US astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev from the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft.

Alexander will take over command of the International Space Station for the second half of his mission. This is only the second time that a European astronaut will take up this leading position on the space outpost – the first was ESA astronaut Frank De Winne in 2009. Alexander Gerst is the 11th German citizen to fly into space.

The event was in German and English and included:

• Welcome by Frank De Winne, Head of ESA’s European Astronaut Centre
• “The European Astronaut Corps”, by ESA astronaut Tim Peake
• “Horizons experiments”, by Volker Schmid, Head of DLR’s International Space Station team, and Matthias Sperl, DLR scientist
• Lightning talks on Horizons science
• Conversation with Alexander Gerst on science, exploration and his role as Station Commander
• Q&A session